CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Two road playoffs wins are in the books, setting up one highly anticipated trip to Seattle in the 49ers' bid for a Super Bowl encore.

Safety Donte Whitner, like many, saw this coming. Last month, Whitner predicted: "We understand that it's going to come down to going to Seattle and winning."

The fifth-seeded 49ers won Sunday's divisional-round game 23-10 over the No. 2-seed Carolina Panthers to clinch a spot in next Sunday's NFC Championship game against the top-seeded Seahawks.

"We are the two teams that everybody was looking at from the beginning," quarterback Colin Kaepernick said of the 49ers and Seahawks. "It's going to be a knockdown, drag-out game."

It'll be the 49ers' third NFC Championship game in three seasons, having lost at home 20-17 to the New York Giants two years ago and won 28-24 at Atlanta last season.

The 49ers (14-4) haven't won since 2011 at noisy CenturyLink Field, where they got outscored 71-16 in their past two regular-season visits. But they did beat the Seahawks 19-17 in their most recent meeting, Dec. 8 at Candlestick Park.

"Long story short, we know them, and they know us," linebacker NaVorro Bowman said. "This is (for) the Super Bowl. Everything is on the line."

Winning on the road has been the 49ers' survival method, from their 23-20 wild-card win at Green Bay to Sunday's comeback at Carolina. Never in 49ers history had they previously played back-to-back road playoff games.

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And never in NFL history had a coach reached conference championship games in each of his first three seasons, not until the 49ers' Jim Harbaugh adamantly did so Sunday.

"This is a tournament, much like playground basketball: Winners stay and play; those that lose go home," Harbaugh said. "We're gonna keep playin'."

Harbaugh drew the football equivalent of a technical foul (unsportsmanlike conduct) during Sunday's turning point against the Panthers.

The often-animated coach rushed onto the field seemingly in protest when officials ruled that Vernon Davis did not make a 1-yard touchdown catch in the end zone's back right corner. According to Harbaugh, he actually pointed out the game clock was still running and stealing seconds from the first half's final minute.

"We needed those seconds on there," said Harbaugh, figuring they would need time to make another attempt at the end zone.

However, upon replay review, officials ruled it a touchdown by Davis, putting the 49ers ahead 13-10 with five seconds left before halftime.

With their defense posting a second-half shutout, the 49ers' lead swelled to 20-10 on a 4-yard touchdown run by Kaepernick, who keyed that third-quarter drive with a 45-yard completion to Anquan Boldin to the 2.

Boldin came through repeatedly on the afternoon and finished with a game-high eight catches for 136 yards. Michael Crabtree, who didn't play in the 49ers' 10-9 loss to Carolina in Week 10, chipped in with three catches for 26 yards, including a leaping 20-yarder on the touchdown drive just before halftime.

"That catch Crabtree had over the middle, that was amazing," said Davis, whose only catch came six snaps later in the end zone. "That was the motivation, especially for me. I was, 'It's time to go.' "

The 49ers pushed their lead to 23-10 with 7:35 remaining when Phil Dawson made his third field goal of the game, capping a 13-play drive that chewed up nearly eight minutes. Frank Gore put the 49ers in Dawson's range with a 39-yard run, doubling Gore's output up to that point.

After winning their previous two games on Dawson field goals as time expired, the 49ers cruised to Sunday's finish line, even attempting a last-minute pass on a fake punt. Whitner put a stop to the Panthers' comeback hopes earlier when he intercepted a Cam Newton pass at the 49ers' 9-yard line with 4:22 remaining.

Not long after, Whitner was at his locker, reflecting on last month's Seattle-or-bust premonition and scouting out the 49ers' next task.

"Everyone has to man up, and we can't let the crowd bother us," Whitner said.

Stopping running back Marshawn Lynch, Whitner said, also will be crucial if the 49ers, 3﻿1/2-point underdogs, are to pull off the upset.

"We need to take him away and make the quarterback (Russell Wilson) beat us," Whitner said.

Neither the Packers' Aaron Rodgers nor the Panthers' Newton proved capable of doing that the past two Sundays. As a result, the 49ers are still on the NFL's playoff playground.